Scoping Out: Tracking Nature Across the Supply Chain
CDP recently released its latest Global Supply Chain Report for the year 2022 in March 2023. The report offers valuable insights into the impact of the supply chain, based on the data and information collected through CDP questionnaires. CDP’s Supply Chain program works with over 280 sustainability leaders, representing $6.4 trillion in procurement spend, and received responses from 16,462 suppliers this year.
The report suggests that despite efforts, change is not happening at the necessary scale.
Businesses must acknowledge that their environmental impact extends beyond their direct operations
To assess and quantify their environmental impact, companies should measure their emissions, particularly Scope 3 emissions. Supply chain emissions are, on average, 11.4 times greater than operational emissions for climate change. Unfortunately, only 41% of companies reported emissions for at least one Scope 3 category. Similarly, only 15% of all new or in-progress targets include Scope 3 emissions.
Corporate engagement with the supply chain is lagging, with only 39% of respondents engaging suppliers on climate-related issues. This engagement covers only 41% of their procurement spend, on average. Climate-related requirements in supplier contracts could be an effective tool for incentivizing suppliers, but only one in ten companies currently implement them.
Climate change and nature are not being tackled together despite growing awareness of the benefits of addressing them holistically
Although most companies responding to the Climate questionnaire believe that climate change is their primary impact, tackling climate change alone is not enough. Addressing nature-related issues such as forests, water, and biodiversity is equally important for our survival. These areas are interdependent, and any action taken in one area affects the others. Therefore, companies must consider adopting practices such as ecosystem conservation, sustainable agriculture and forestry, water resource preservation, and circular economy to minimize their environmental impact.
For most companies, these actions will require looking beyond their direct operations’ impact and engaging suppliers on this journey.
If you want to read the full CDP Global Supply Chain Report covering the topics Climate, Water and Forests, please visit CDP’s website and download the current report: Scoping out: Tracking nature across the supply chain – CDP
DFGE support
Since 2014, DFGE – Institute for Energy, Ecology and Economy has been supporting companies as Accredited Solution Provider of CDP. As CDP’s longest partner in the German-speaking region, DFGE has helped DAX, MDAX, and SME companies to improve their ratings for the Climate Change, Water Security, and Forests questionnaires or helped to set science-based targets (SBTs).
If you would like for DFGE to help with CSRD compliance, support with the LkSG or improve your sustainability performance and successfully participate in the 2023 CDP questionnaire assessment or other sustainability ratings and rankings, please contact or call us: +49 8192 99733 20
